Firhouse Carmel FC 50 year celebrations
FIRHOUSE Carmel Football Club celebrated 50 years since its formation at the weekend as they held a gala dinner in the Maldron Hotel in Tallaght.
Mick Byrne, Director of Football at the club, was delighted with the evening and emphasised the strong position the club is currently in.
“The club is still going from strength to strength after 50 years; we have 600 members in the club”, Byrne said.
“We had a great night in the Maldron, the staff and all those involved there were great to us.”
Former St Patricks Athletic and Preston North End striker Eoin Doyle was a special guest on the night, with the 36-year-old having played schoolboy football for the club and he also sponsors the Firhouse Carmel academy.
DDSL League operations manager Mick Kennedy was also a guest at the anniversary dinner.
The women’s side of the club alongside the men’s has seen a significant growth in recent years.
“It’s going from strength to strength, we started a girls team three years ago and we have gone from having just one team to now fielding six teams across all age groups.
“Then there’s the 35’s which started about four years ago when some lads contacted us about starting a team for older guys who would have played for the club and now we have two 35’s teams which is brilliant.”
Firhouse now also have a men’s senior team which competes in the Leinster Senior League after one was formed five years ago.
Thay are back-to-back Charlie O’Leary cup winners, with much of the team having played all the way through for Firhouse, while others have rejoined the club having player underage before departing to play senior football.
With the club growing year by year, this brings up the problem of catering for all those players and with a lack of facilities in the area, it remains a fundamental problem for the club, according to Byrne.
“The problem we have at the moment is that we have to travel out of Firhouse to train, within 10 years we would love to have our own astro”.
“We train in Tallaght sports complex and we have 18 teams training up in Threerock.
“Having an all-weather pitch would help us out an awful lot.”
